Singapore, 27 May 2015 – Pathlight School and Chongfu School have been awarded the Silver and Bronze prizes respectively for the "Shop For Your School" campaign organised by Little Red Dot and presented by Singapore Press Holdings Foundation (SPH Foundation).

The judging panel decided that no gold award be awarded this year.

Little Red Dot is a publication of Straits Times Schools, and reaches out to primary school students.

The campaign rewards top student-led proposals on how they plan to make a difference to their school, peers or community. Winning ideas are awarded cash prizes for students to turn their proposals into reality. This year, only the Silver and Bronze were awarded to the deserving schools.

Pathlight School student Jeremiah Chia, 18, (second from left) raises his hands in celebration upon finding out his class, Picasso class, won the Silver in this year's Shop For Your School competition organised by Little Red Dot. With him (from left to right) are Tan Ying Xin, 18; Ng Jia Sheng, 19; and Nicholas Neo, 18. (Photo credit: Mike Lee for The Straits Times)

Pathlight School won the Silver prize of $3,000 for its project on distributing care packages of daily necessity items to the needy elderly to show the students' appreciation of the elderly in their community.

The Bronze prize was awarded to Chongfu School, which won the $2,000 cash prize with its proposal of creating a green environment within school grounds and the community, through caring for potted plants and a tree-planting initiative.

This year’s campaign theme was “Every neighbour matters: Lending a helping hand to your neighbour in need”. It was launched in February 2015. Entries are short-listed and judged by the Little Red Dot team.

The schools were presented with their prize monies during ceremonies held on 26 and 27 May.

Ms Ginney Lim, General Manager of SPH Foundation, said: "We are impressed with the quality of the entries received because they show the students’ great compassion for others. We look forward to the students’ successful execution of their winning ideas.”

Ms Serene Goh, Editor of Little Red Dot and IN, said: "It's always gratifying to see how creative a young person can be in coming up with fresh ways to improve his immediate environment. This campaign encourages great empathy and empowering its participants for positive change. Those values are at the heart of journalism."

The Singapore Press Holdings Foundation, a registered charity and an Institution of Public Character, was first set up as the Press Foundation of Singapore in January 2003 to help build a lifelong learning community that embraces language enrichment, creativity, diversity, healthy living and sports. The seed contribution of $20 million to the Foundation came from media group Singapore Press Holdings Ltd. It was renamed Singapore Press Holdings Foundation in May 2005.

Little Red Dot is a weekly publication that reaches primary schools and engages pupils in the areas of local and global current affairs, values, life and physical sciences as well as English language learning.

It also focuses on values education through cartoon characters designed to teach pupils about traits such as honesty, graciousness and bravery through daily news events.

The Straits Times further engages subscribing schools through events catered for young readers, including art competitions, learning journeys and reading programmes.

The multi-award winning team behind Little Red Dot, and its sister publication IN, for secondary schools, also work on big national projects such as the National Spelling Championship, the National Current Affairs Quiz and the National Youth Media Competition.

About The Straits Times

The Straits Times is the English-language flagship daily of Singapore Press Holdings and the most-read newspaper in Singapore. It was launched on July 15, 1845, and provides comprehensive coverage of local, regional and international news. It has 20 bureaus in major cities worldwide, with its correspondents providing a Singapore perspective on what is happening around the world. Complementing the main title are weekly lifestyle supplements Digital Life, Urban and Mind Your Body, as well as IN and Little Red Dot for students.

The Straits Times is also on digital platforms with its website at www.straitstimes.com. It also has ioS and Android apps, and a menu of e-books housed in a separate Straits Times Star app.

The Straits Times has won multiple international awards, including from the Society of Publishers in Asia, the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers, the Pacific Area Newspaper Publishers' Association (Panpa) and Society of News Design. It was named Singapore Newspaper of the Year 2014 and 2013 by Marketing magazine and voted Singapore’s favourite newspaper 2013 by Superbrands.

Its website www.straitstimes.com won gold in “Best In Online Media” at the 2012 Wan-Ifra Asian Digital Media Awards. Its Communities microsites platform was named 2014 Digital Innovation of the Year award by Panpa, and got Gold in the Best in Social Media category at the 2013 Wan-Ifra Asian Digital Media Awards.